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Charter Schools Top Story of 2012

Charter school leaps forward, jumps sidewise, and steps backward provided the fodder for more news stories in 2012 than any other educational topic. According to research gathered under the auspices of the Hoover Institution’s Koret Task Force on K-12 Education, the charter story was even bigger than the teacher union story, despite the recall election drama in Wisconsin and the bitter strike in Chicago. Special education, pre-school education and No Child Left Behind, in that order, captured the next three spots on the list.

In addition to compiling the actual coverage across the nation, the Koret Task Force identified five issues it thought deserved greater media attention—teacher pension costs, common core standards, U. S. achievement in comparison with other countries, online or digital learning, and the education reforms in Louisiana.

What do you think? In your opinion, did the media get it right? Or does the Koret Task Force have a valid set of complaints? Pick your top three stories of 2012 from the list below, which includes both the actual Top Five and the Koret suggestions.

After collecting your votes, we’ll let you know the Top Five topics chosen by EdNext Readers.

Imagine the hue and cry if the United States placed 32nd in the Olympic medal count? That is where the U.S. stood in norm-referenced tests.
In second place was Special Ed-which, thanks to blurring distinctions of what is a ‘disability’ the IDEA has bowerdized-in California is a make-work mill and a money pit. Glorified babysitting.
Last was pensions-the teachers in California are taken from the bottom third and many hold forth like they are fonts of wisdom when all they are is glorified babysitters.
But for me the real story are the regulations and barriers to teaching and learning as well the obession with “diversity”-I call them “education by osmosis.

The biggest story was the fact that a handful of billionaires could only manage a statistical tie in the State of Washington, despite the fact that they outspent their opponents 17 to 1—that’s right, Seventeen to One!—in an effort to achieve Step One in the Privatization of Our Schools.

And, in reality, it was more like 40 or 50 to 1 when you take into account the four or five “education” groups—all funded by the same billionaires—that had virtually their entire staffs working on this “charter” initiative. (Which cost over $6 per signature gathered just to purchase ballot access!)

This will probably be invalidated in the courts. But whether it is or not, get this: We’re On To You. We beat you in Indiana and Idaho this year. When you’re losing states like those two, it’s a sign that you might want to rethink your “strategy”…